I almost wrote, "Has the Watchtower Society lost the information war?", but decided the war has been won by those who are determined to make known the truth about this organization.
When the Internet became available to the public around late 1994, only a few JWs/XJWs had actually joined; just a tiny fraction of the xJW population. Almost 10 years later, and we have a real information revolution, which was previously unimagined.
With various governments around the world all wanting every school, college and university connected to the Internet, not to mention third-world countries to get access to government services and programs, it seemed inevitable that people would see the Internet, not just as a tool, but a way of life.
Consider when the telephone was invented. When the first telephone exchanges were in operation, making phone calls was expensive. A landline was not laid from the USA to the UK until the 1920s, thereby limiting the flow of conversation (information) and making calls very expensive. You also had to 'book' your phonecall in advance to some places. Decades later, and we have the World Wide Web, where unlimited access has replaced per minute/per hour access. These advances in marketing, accessibility and cost have made the Internet available to millions of people around the globe. Even if you cannot afford a computer, most likely you will have a $1 to pay for an hours worth of surfing in an Internet cafe.
What does this have to do with the Watchtower Organization?
If you were considered an apostate in the 1970s, where would you go to find information on their history? Few books were available then, notably 30 years a Watchtower Slave.
If you were considered an apostate in the 1980s, you may have heard about Freeminds organization and their newsletters. Perhaps you may have 'stumbled' on 'Crisis of Conscience' by Ray Franz.
Still, there was almost no way you would come across an ex-witness in those decades, short of going to a convention and meeting demonstrators.
In the 1990s, the Internet took off and so did the information revolution. H20, the grand daddy of all JW websites, was created in 1996, and represented a very daring undertaking for its time - for the first time in JW history, active, doubting and ex-witnesses could meet together, anonymously, in the privacy of their own room and discuss sensitive matters regarding the nature of the organization.
Other websites came and went, but JW.com has to be the best website for all classes of witnesses.
This website, as well as others, have done severe, lasting damage to the Jehovah's Witness organization. The church has lost members left, right and center because of this board.
In 1999 the November Kingdom Ministry strongly cautioned witnesses to limit their use of the Internet, saying it is not necessary to have a webpage about the activities and beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. Many active witnesses violated this directive and formed their own forums and webpages. Not a few who did this eventually became apostate themselves and possibly others who had joined.
Since that year, the Society had published a few articles warning of the dangers of the Internet. It seems now, that apostasy has replaced pornography as the biggest threat the Society faces. While pornography is a problem in itself, and to the viewers of it, 'apostasy' lays bare the entire tapestry of the organization, exposing every error they had made, are making and likely will make.
Because of the Internet
1 - Silent Lambs website was created, alerting JW's to the presence of child molestors in the organization, not to mention the coverups of local elders and the governing body
2 - JW's can now watch media clips and videos of TV programs exposing Jehovah's Witnesses. Radio and talk shows are other media accessible from this medium.
3 - Anytime, anywhere JWs can access and read thousands of life stories, exposes, coverups, scandals and changes in doctrine, from any computer
4 - JWs can anonymously post questions, answers and other material for a variety of JW oriented subjects
5 - Using IRC and other chat programs, JW's can, in real time, talk to friends and for that matter any JW who will give them a hearing ear about their problems in the organization
6 - Amazon and Barnes & Nobles offer a wide variety of JW literature. Without the great search engine, how else would you know the titles of books exposing the Society?
7 - Borads such as these, are an enormous JW resource. If I have any critiscism, about this board, it should be that there is no real index of JW stuff that we could access. The more info this forum accumulates, the harder it is to find something very specific, say an event at Bethel, or a discussion of JCanon's latest insight.
With the Society's strong talk at the summer convention last year, on "Beware the Voice of Strangers", the message I got was avoid the Internet!
The recent Watchtower study articles seem paranoid about the infiltration of apostates. The March 1st issue is almost pleading with the members that they really are the faithful and discreet slave.
Think for a minute how difficult it was before the Internet and the PC to share secret information about the Society to another JW. You would have a difficult time getting the information let alone photcopying sheets of paper.
Along comes email, winzip and broadband. Now, a JW on the other side of the world can send a Dateline expose on the child molestation to another friend within seconds.
The power of the Internet is hear to stay.
What else has the power of the Internet done to witnesses? Being exposed to so much truth about the WTS, a number of active members are now polarised in their thinking regarding the methods and motives of the leadership. They choose to stay in because the knowledge they now have has made them hostage to their minds and principles - better to stay in and keep spouse and kids then leave and loose eveything.
In fact, we have a new class of JW's - the Between a rock and a hard place class.
Finally, consider Moore's law
Wikpedia defines Moore's law as this: Moore's Law is an empiric observation stating in effect that at our rate of technological development and advances in the semiconductor industry the complexity of integrated circuits doubles every 18 months.
Is there going to be similar law, perhaps an XJW law, that the number of exwitnesses leaving the organization will double every 18 months?